Enjoyable entry in the series, with yet more insight into the characters we've come to know. Oh, and there's also three murders, at least, that need solving. Well done. ( )

Summary: Chief Inspector Rostnikov and his team are charged with investigating three cases, a missing cosmonaut, a stolen film, and a brutal murder in a Paranormal Research Institute, only the first of the murders in the course of the story.

My son often manages to find books I probably never would have noticed that end up as fascinating reads. This book was such a case. It is actually the thirteenth installment in Stuart M. Kaminsky's Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov series and the real find here is the character of Rostnikov who combines the savvy political instincts necessary to survive in a cutthroat Russian bureacracy with an intuition about human behavior that leads him to surround himself with shrewd associates, and solve crimes.

In this installment, there is not one, but three cases that his boss, the Yak, has assigned him, expecting results. One is a cosmonaut that has disappeared, along with secret knowledge of events on the Mir space station, knowledge that others have already died without revealing, the most recent by a swift injection from an umbrella-bearing man that is following Rostnikov and his son Iosef, as they travel to the village where Tsimion Vladovka grew up.

In the second case, a movie director, Yuri Kriskov has just completed what is adverted to be a great epic on the life of Leo Tolstoy. Then he receives word that the movie and its negatives have been stolen, and are being held for a ransom that if not paid will result both in the destruction of the movie and the death of Kriskov. It turns out that this is a plot of an assistant, Valery Grachev who is in love with Vera, Kriskov's wife, and Vera, who wants to be rid of Yuri. Sasha Tkach and Elena Timofeyeva are assigned to this case, trying to find the manic genius who has stolen the film, and is seeking a way to kill Yuri.

The third case involves the gruesome death by claw hammer of a sleep and dream researcher at a Paranormal Studies Institute. Emil Karpo and his understudy Zelech are assigned this one. Zelech is sidetracked by a woman researcher who suspects him of special abilities. Karpo collects shoes, finds a suspect who is a reclusive researcher who claims he is framed, and homes in on a jealous fellow scientist good at covering tracks.

Rostnikov has the skill to adeptly counsel each both on the cases and their personal lives. Karpo needs a personal life. Tkach is estranged from his wife. Elena and his son Iosef are engaged. Zelech is single. They eventually unravel each case, but not before others die and their own lives in several instances are endangered. The cases also provide "information" that "the Yak" can use to advance his own ambitions, and his ability to control and manipulate others.

I mention all the figures associated with the cases because, like any good Russian novel, keeping track of the names and who is doing what is more than half the battle! The narrative keeps moving back and forth between the cases briskly enough that we don't lose the thread of any of them as we move to the climax and resolution of each.

Altogether, there are sixteen numbers in Kaminsky's Rostnikov series. I don't know if I'll get around to reading all of them, but I did pick up another one as a result of reading this. I think one of the most intriguing thing about mysteries is the distinctive character of the detectives--Holmes, Poirot, J. B. Fletcher, Kay Scarpetta, Robicheaux, Maigret, and Rostnikov--each seems a world different from the others and the delight is as much in the depths of these characters as in the resolution of these cases. I think I'm going to have to modify the bibliophile's complaint and say, "So many series and so little time!" ( )

I am so going to miss Mr. Kaminsky's Porfiry. I think I own every novel he has written with this lovable Russian detective and I re-visit them regularly. What a unique character he has created and his writing style always flowed so easily that the book was over before you knew it. If you have never read Kaminsky I would advise that you give him a try - I don't think you'll be disappointed.

I've been reading this mystery series since some time in the early 1980s and I still enjoy them. The books may have lost a bit of je ne sais quoi in their backdrops as they moved from the Soviet Union to post-Soviet Russia: the political drama surrounding the investigations just seems less intense and convoluted. However, the characters I've come to enjoy are still there and, despite being largely unchanged with time, have avoided becoming caricatures of themselves. I'd recommend this series to those who enjoy whodunits. ( )

One cannot fail to fall in love with this one-legged Moscow inspector - Porfiry Rostnikov, thoughtful, deliberate, never rushing, but always knowing, experienced and wise. It's the third book by S. Kaminsky that I've read and I am craving more. My only problem with this talented writer is that he should let an authentic Russian speaker edit the Russian phrases that he uses in the book, as he does have mistakes there; it's a shame he doesn't employ a Russian editor for this mystery series. ( )